34 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



CALENDULA (Calendula, Marigold) 



Calendula has no place in the early Pharmacopeias. It was 

 official in the editions of 1880, 1890 and 1900, but was omitted 

 altogether in 1910. 



Marigold, Calendula officinalis, has been known, 

 practically, from the beginning of documentary records 

 in scientific or medicinal lines. A native of Southern 

 Europe and the Orient, it is found under various 

 names, from Japan to India, from the Orient to 

 North America, to which it was carried by Euro- 

 pean colonists, according to Josselyn (345), before 

 1670. Dymock (Pharmacographia Indica, Vol. II, 

 p. 322) states that calendula is a weed of culti- 

 vation in Northern India. In the early days of 

 English mediaeval medication it was employed hi de- 

 coctions for fevers, and as a hot drink to promote per- 

 spiration. The juice was also used empirically for sore 

 eyes, and as an application to warts. Its popular use, 

 as heired from a tune lost to history, led to its final 

 utilization by the medical profession, and to its position 

 in mediaeval herbals, as also in many Pharmacopeias 

 and treatises on European medicines and medication. 



CALUMBA (Jateorrhiza* Calumba) 



Mentioned first in 1860, calumba retains its place in all fol- 

 lowing editions. The official species of the U. S. P., 1910, is 

 Jateorhiza palmata. 



Persons familiar wit*h our common yellow parilla, 

 Menispermum canadense, have a good idea of the plant 

 that yields the calumba root of commerce. Indeed, a 



* Derived from the Greek words idler, physician, and'r&taz, root, evidently in allusion 

 to its healing virtues. Most German and a few English authorities (*. g. Fliickiger, the 

 German Pharmacopeia of 1890, the U. S. Pharmacopeia of 1880, and others), spell the 

 name "jateorrhiza," with the two r's, notwithstanding the fact that Miers, the author of the 

 name, spelled it with a single r. In this he is followed by most authorities (except the 

 Germans), including the Index Kewensis and the U. S. Pharmacopeia of 1890. Marme 

 (Pharmacognosie, 1886), suggests that the name jatrorhiza should be used instead of 

 jateorrhua, and so also does Koehler (Medicinal-pflanzen, 140). 



